Good evening. It is 7:02 at 7 o'clock on Monday, October 6, 2025. And I call to order this regular meeting of the Richfield School Board. Attending this meeting's board meeting live and in the boardroom are board members Rachel Banks Cup, Kendallis, Tim Palace, Kirk Spencer, remote is Paul Cole. Uh and I'm board chair Eric Carter. We're joined by our student representatives Vanessa Rosa Miguel and Tania Breenidge. Also at the table we have Superintendent Steve Yunowski and assistant to Superintendent Yosowski Cassandra Quam. Other members of the district leadership team are in attendance and may be participating throughout the meeting as well. Richfield Public Schools mission is to inspire and empower each individual to learn, grow, and excel. And we aim to keep that focus at the heart of our discussions this evening. Thanks to all of us, all of you joining us here live and in the boardroom. We also want to thank those of you who are streaming the meeting or watching it after the fact via YouTube. We appreciate when people bear witness to our meetings where we conduct the necessary official business of the district. Our first item of business this evening is to approve the agenda before us. As approve of the agenda is a routine business item, I'll briefly pause to see if there are any comments or questions related to the agenda. Hearing and seeing none. Is anybody prepared to move the agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> I second. >> We have a motion by director Paul and a second by director Liss. Any more discussion about the agenda? We'll bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Wait a minute. Yeah. Nice. I I got it. Because we have a member who is remote tonight. Every vote will be done as a resolution or as a roll call vote, which is super exciting because I notic we had a bunch >> I love those, Eric. I was going to be like, yay, you get to do this >> so much every single time. >> Uh, and I was actually looking forward because I saw that we had a bunch of resolutions on the agenda tonight and I was like, woo, yay. Uh, but >> very convenient >> all of them. So, I will start to my left this time. Director Spencer, >> hi. >> Director Liss, >> hi. Director Pink Scapro >> I. >> Director Palace >> I. >> Director Cole >> I. >> Isaiah tongue sticking out does not count. The chair votes I. And the agenda is approved. We now move into the information and proposals not action on sectioning the agenda. Before moving into our topics this evening, just a reminder, the next opportunity for public comment will be at our board meeting special one on October 27th, 2025. And actually, we'll have another public comment again on November 10th, 2025. Just want to bring it all up, make sure everybody knows. Now, over to Superki. All right. Very exciting. We have one presentation on our board packet in the superintendent update. I'm pleased to welcome our Richfield Middle School administrative team, Principal Erica Barlo, veteran assistant principal Amy Hager, and new assistant principal where there's a slide to introduce her Laura Ramsborg. So, welcome to the team from the middle school. Take it away, Principal Barla. >> All right. Thank you for the introductions. Hi, everyone. Happy Monday. Uh super excited to be here. Uh we talked this morning about like we're just going with the three of us. Hopefully that's going to be enough. Last year we showed up with um a few other staff members and we have a new addition to us as well. Um but we're super excited to present to you um a little bit about the middle school. So, our agenda for today is just again um saying hello to all of you, sharing again who we are, um some of our trend data, and then what we are hopeful for the school year. And with that, we're going to start with a quick introduction to our newest AP. >> Hi everyone. Um I'm really happy to be here. My name is Laura Ramsborg. Um as mentioned, I'm a brand new AP at Richfield Middle School. And prior to coming to Richfield, I worked in St. Paul at Highland Park Senior High School. And then before that, I spent most of my teaching in an admin career in Bloomington. It's great to be here tonight. I'm excited to be a part of this team. So, I'm just going to start off with a little bit of how we're structured at Richfield Middle. And this is all brand new to me as well, but um it's been a joy to become a part of the community and get to know it a little bit more. So, at each grade level, you can see that we have two park teams. Um, and those are named after parks in Richfield, and that really helps to build that community uh feel at the school for our students and for all of us to be able to support our students. So, at sixth grade, we've got Adams Hill and Roosevelt. Seventh, we've got Donaldson and Monroe. And eighth, we have Augsburg and Taft. Our schedule looks like a seven period day with four core classes. And then students have the option to take different electives as well. We've worked really hard to align our elective offerings with what matches student interest. So you can see um we've got things like music, visual arts, Spanish, wood shop. Um and then we also have our dual uh immersion programs. At Richfield Middle, we have our core values and students know these really well. I've been super impressed. Whenever I talk to students and interact with them in the halls, they are well aware of these. They can tell you on the spot what they are. So, we are making sure that we are kind, we are responsible, and we are safe in all things that we're doing with all students, with all adults, and in all locations and we uphold very high expectations for our students. So we know that in addition to our core values, we can expect our students to level up, take it to the next level with Spartan excellence. And we focus on each of these areas at the different grade levels. So we are curious, we really emphasize that in sixth grade when students are getting to know middle school and we want to keep that curiosity and that thirst for learning ignited and be able to nurture that. Um, in seventh grade, we work on being considerate and making sure that we're being kind and building a safe learning community for everyone. And then in eighth grade, we work on being courageous. And that prepares our eighth graders for their next big step to high school. >> All right. And hopefully for the board that sounds pretty familiar as those have not changed in the past three years at least. Um, so something that we're really excited about at the middle school is just the consistency that we're starting to have and uh the climate that we have created by having some of these same consistent expectations moving forward. So next we're going to focus on some trend data and we have again some goals this year that will look pretty similar to last year's that Amy's going to get to introduce, but I wanted to first start with just where we ended last year. So, we came to you in February um shared some pretty lofty goals and some of them we obtained and a couple we were we weren't able to and we've got some new um goals around those areas for this year. So, last year for attendance uh we came to you sharing that we were really focusing on our students being in class on time. Um so, our focus was around reducing our tardies or our partial absences. Um, two years ago we had over 35,000 tardies or partial absences recorded and last school year our goal was a 3% uh decrease and we made about a 51 to a 52% decrease with our tardy plan that we had last year. Um, Superintendent Yunowski uh pushed me last year in our meeting to have a goal for behaviors of suspendable events to be under a hundred. Um, if we have year 23 24 on here, if we had had past years, you would have seen possibly why I was hesitant to make that big of a a push. Um, and we ended last year having 95 total suspendable events. Um, I actually just had my goals meeting with him and suggested we actually go for 90 this year. Um, we've got a really great building where our students really do know what is expected of them. Um and our course passing rate, uh 95% was last year or two years ago and we were able to increase that now to 96%. Um I'm going to do the positive goal on this slide first. Um under SEAL, uh pushing our middle schoolers to being a student that is one of the most important parts of who they are. We went from 50% to 53%. Um we are again looking for a 3% increase this year. I'm hoping that it will jump more than that with the work that we're working on uh in our advisories. And for our fastbridge goals uh for literacy and for math, we did not obtain either of those. Um but on the next slide, what I will share is that our MCA scores did actually both go up in reading and in math. and our goals um or our I'm sorry, our MCA scores went up in math and in reading um when the state at that time either stayed flat leveled or increased less than 1%. So although we maybe didn't see the growth we were hoping to see in our fast screener at the end of the year, um we did see some growth in our MCA overall data. So I have the pleasure of talking about our work that is cut out for us for this year. So those enduring goal areas will continue to endure and um related to attendance we're going to continue to focus on when students are at school making sure that they are getting to class on time. Uh so by the end of this school year again our goal is to reduce um the number of student tardy partial absences by 3%. Uh that would mean uh 517 fewer tardies. Um and we hope to see a lot more growth than that. I don't I don't know that we'll see 51 52% but um I'm based on the street data that I'm seeing in the hallway so far we are off to a good start. Kids are in classes and learning is happening. for social and emotional learning. We're also focusing on helping students build that identity as a student where when you say, you know, what's an important part of your identity, you know, right next to being a great sister, being a great friend, being a great um gamer, being a student is right up with that. And so, we're hopeful that at least 56% of students surveyed will agree with that statement. Again, we're hoping for more, but we are focusing uh a lot on identity work through our advisory program and helping students become confident in in their academic skills as well. For math, we're focusing again on the A uh math assessment, which is a broad computer-based assessment that measures broad math skills. Uh our goal for this year is for 54% of students to make typical or aggressive growth. And I will in a moment um show what the trend has been over the past three years and why we will continue to focus in this area. So when we look at the three-year uh fall proficiency trends for a math um what you can notice is the pink is decreasing and the purple is uh increasing. And what that is showing is that over the past three years we are reducing the number of students in the high to some risk categories and we are uh increasing the number of students in the low to exceeding risk uh categories. And so that's really hopeful for us and we know that we want to see a lot more students at proficiency. So, we're going to continue to focus on this area because we know that um literacy is one of our most important goals in education and math as well. So, reading here um 56% again similar to our fastbridge um a reading I will note that this is a different measure that we used from last year. So when we shared the trend data earlier, last year's goal was focused on the auto reading. Um auto reading measures the the basic word um like the the word level like print um concepts of print vocabulary. Uh oh no, sorry. Um really looking at word recognition and some of those foundational literacy skills that is still happening but in a more sophisticated way. Um, and I'll share that in our in a upcoming slide on some of the targeted systemic interventions that we're doing. Um, but whole school tier one, we're focusing on the fastbridge A reading. Again, that's looking at the broad reading uh skills that students are coming with us to. Again, we're noticing the same trends over the past three years. What I would also like to mention is um this is not just the work and the celebration of the middle school. I think there's been a lot of work happening at the elementary schools as well um with updated curriculum, updated training for teachers and more sophisticated intervention programs. And so I think we will continue to um see the benefits as our system continues to work in alignment. Before we leave this, can I ask just so I'm reading it correctly? The sixth graders are on the left. Um the 23 fall sixth graders are on the left bar and the sixth grade group, but they would then be in the middle of the seventh grade group and then on the far right. Okay. So we can track the same >> as a cohort. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you. So I shared or I referenced that we have a bit more of a sophisticated way of intervening related to what the students need. So new this year we have introduced three new courses um as well as a math intervention. We have literacy lab which is a tier 2 uh literacy intervention course for students in sixth and seventh grade. Um and we have used multiple data points, fastbridge um screening and progress monitoring points to help make sure that students are placed accurately in in these classes for literacy lab and then numbers lab as well. And then we also have a Spartan success class that's an exploratory class that focuses on those academic habits and identity work for all sixth graders. So, it's a really cool opportunity to help students acclimate to what middle school looks like and really make sure students understand expectations and feel equipped to meet those expectations in in all of the all of the Spartan community. We also have a partnership with Math Core for our eighth grade math intervention as well. And then we're continuing our big three. Um, Principal Barlo likes to joke that it's going to kind of be like the big like how does how do you say it? >> It's like the big 10. and it just keeps adding and adding and adding. So like the big 10 is no longer the big 10 and our big three is no longer really the big three, but we're going to call it the big three forever. So yeah, >> but it does remain three this year. So it's keeping your hands to yourself. We know that middle schoolers are very embodied humans. Um and so we're teaching that appropriate self-control and keeping our hands to oursel, being on time to class, which is again aligned to our attendance uh goal. And then using appropriate language. Last year we focused it in more broadly. This year we provided some trainings to students um around using appropriate language with one another specifically around using uh and being aware of racial microaggressions. So it's been really cool to see students talking with one another um and being reflective on their language choices and uh to have had that learning together has been pretty cool. Um we are also again continuing our work with the conscious discipline training and implementation that our teachers have um had over the past several years and then our second step curriculum through advisory. Uh this month we're focusing on bullying and harassment which I think is really cool and that our safe and supportive schools uh student and parent advisory group are also looking at our policy um this month. So that's just uh some of the cool things that we are continuing and supporting our goals. >> Thank you for that and welcome questions. I I'll just ask on the the um late to class and and absentee thing. You went from 35,000 to cut it in half or more >> or you know smaller than half the >> what was the the main what was the do you think the most important action that you took or did you just throw a whole lot of things out and it's really difficult to say and it's it's okay if it's the second thought. >> Yeah, I feel like we um kind of a little bit of both. I think what I'm learning about middle schoolers is the more you pay attention to it and call it out and name what it is, the more our middle schoolers realize the importance of it. Um, so, uh, that's one. So, we just named what we're looking for. We pulled data weekly and actually share that with the advisory teachers. So, advisory teachers were now aware of how many tardies each child in their class had per week. And we also had interventions with back on track for kids that had egregious numbers. We thought seven or more in a week felt like a lot. Um, and then we also uh had a certificate called perfect attendance while at school. And so students that earned that had zero tardies. And it's amazing what a certificate will do to motivate a lot of students to also be in class. >> So it's kind of a little bit of all the above. But I will say that for our big three, those were that was off of a lot of street data with working with our staff like kids being handsy with each other and the language. And again, last year those three things I don't even think would have been teachers annoyances of behaviors just because the kids were really aware of it. So, it's like, what else can we name and put on this list and just make it like this ever long list of things that our middle schoolers are just going to all of a sudden realize, okay, we can do these things. >> Cool. >> I'd also like to add, I think our team did a really good job inspecting what we expected. Um, if you walked through the school last year, this year, you'll notice that there's always at least one staff person in on each floor in the hallway. Uh, and we're really good at encouraging students to get to class and helping students make a plan if they're not on time. >> So, I think just that presence has been helpful as well. >> All right. Thank you. I will say just some back of the envelope math on that. >> It's theoretically possible for one student to have like a thousand class tardies >> in the year, right? So, there's a seven periods a day and 170 days or so. >> It adds up. So, one student could be a a frequent flyer on that list, I'm sure. >> And they graduated up to up to ninth grade. >> Not all of them. >> All right. Thank you. You know what I want to say is after we talked at at the at the introduction of all the teachers, >> I think a phenomenal show of the change in the culture and the climate is the fact that turnover was so low this year. We debated putting that in our presentation. Three staff versus like 18. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. >> For the throngs. >> Let me try that again. We debated putting that in our slideshow um for this for this presentation um that we only had three new staff this year versus like 17 to >> plus for the last few years. >> I mean that because >> morale morale starts at the leadership >> and works its way down. Thank you for noticing that and remembering. >> Yeah. >> No one else. You going to go to me next? Then I guess this first question might be directed this way, right? Uh well, you'll see why. So, um I love trend data and you only gave me one year and like I I feel like there's a pattern, right, where it's like maybe it's a how do we check the presentations in advance? I mean, if we've got the data because you alluded to it, let's show it, right? I'm curious to see it. So, my question would be is like could we get make it a standard of like if we're going to show trend data to get five years or do as best as we can to get five years? And the reason why I say I'm looking this way, one is you, right? And then two is you because you're probably better at making sure that happens. So if that's possible because I think it is it's showing that pattern and we like to see it, right? It's like in that we like to put it to paper and like memorialize it. >> The reason why we selected three years for FastBridge is that's when we began screening using Fastbridge. Oh, the reason why we selected the three years is that when that's when we were um effectively screening all students uh using FastBridge, we don't have data prior using FastBridge. >> Well, and I'm even looking at your trend data for your attendance and behavior, right? It's like again when we've talked about how good of a job the middle school has done, it's showing where we were at and where we're at today, right? And it's not being ashamed of it, right? It's saying this is where we're at and this is how we've turned it around. And then then the expectation is this year's how we maintain it. >> We can certainly look at taking multiple years of trend data. We did obviously compare last year to this year. We have done historically in the past even larger. What I can share is tardies were larger before last year. >> Uh suspension incidents were higher before that. Fail rate was higher prior to that or course credits achieved. So each of those have continued forward. Uh but we can absolutely look at that in our presentations. >> That would be great. So it's not just you guys. It's >> Yep. Got it. >> Yeah. >> Um, so guess parlaying on top of Tim's comment, um, do we have any evaluation as to why the students are absent in tardy? I mean, do we I don't know. It's like you go ask like, why are we late this time, right? But like how do we figure out how why they're doing it so that we can prevent it in the future? >> I can start and I'll let Amy maybe jump in too. I think it depends on each student. Um what's nice when you pull the data is you can see that maybe a student has one period that they're always late to. >> And so then what we can do with that is then provide different resources. So one ask the questions but also work with um that teacher or work with our counselor or work with our social worker to figure out what it is about that class. Um the problem is we do have students that it's like right after lunch. So we've discussed like do we add an extra minute after lunch because that's when we have a lot of kids moving anyway like we don't we don't necessarily know. So I think it's kid-by-kid basis and really trying to figure that out. And one of the really nice things that happens if we start to have a high number of tardies is they then get to work with our student supports team. So like our dean Tara and she gets to meet with them and ask some of those questions as well to try to help figure it out. Sometimes like we've got a a cute little couple right now that both have some pretty bad tardies and so they've got some one hour one gets tardy cuz they're dropping one off at the class and then the next hour the other one's tardy. So we've already started to problem solve some of those things on like to help do some motivation. So it's truly case by case with each kid trying to figure out like what it is that's causing that problem. And some of it is just even coming to school on time. But we eliminate zero hour or our advisory just because of vans are late, buses are late, and sometimes walking causes them to be late or parent drop off is late. >> When you say eliminate, you mean eliminate. >> We don't count Z. I don't count advisory in in any of our numbers because it's just there's too many factors to factor in. >> Too many factors to Yeah, >> good to know. >> Factors to factor in. >> Well, that's interesting. So then um if you did include >> advisory, >> would the numbers not look as good? Well, we know the answer to the question. >> The numbers for every single year moving forward would be >> they'd be higher. I think the thing to to focus on is that's not in a middle schooler's control. Middle schoolers can't drive. And so that is that is a that is any other methodology other than their decision. Their decision is from the time they're physically present in our building um to that time forward. And so that's what we want to to hold them accountable and really support. And that's fair. And I'm more just trying to understand of like is the 35,000 the 17,000 because we took >> Oh, no. The zero hour our advisory has always not been counted in any of our data pools. >> Okay. Thank you. That's useful. >> Um then with that in mind, do we have an idea of what the target number should be? So if we're to say in my ideal world, I think we should have x number of tardies. And again, I get it's kid by kid, right? Yeah, >> Tim may be like always late to class because he's >> I was going to say you're talking to the person who's late to life. So, I don't like when I It's funny when I talk to parents um when I help with those phone calls and they're like, "Ah, they've had 12 tardies this month." And I'm like, "Well, let's think about it. They have seven periods in a day, like five days in a week, that's 35 tardies for one kid." Like, to me, a tardy here or there is reasonable. You forgot something out of your locker. You need to go get a pencil. Like, that's I mean, and When we talk about being tardy, that is being five minutes late or less. So, that's also like part of part of it. I don't know. I feel like I'm maybe not the right person. I would love it to say zero, but um and we also like kids forget things and need water and and and and >> but that's okay. Again, it's like what what do we expect? And I think that's fair to say. Um I think the tricky thing is you tell the kids that, right? Well, I think we've kind of been honest with them that like we understand a tardy here or there. So, we're not meeting with the kids that have one tardy a week or two tardies in a month. We're meeting with the kids that have seven plus tardies in a week. So, we've kind of said if you have seven or more in a week, that's unreasonable. >> And so, we've kind of listed it as like we've got this unreasonable group. And so, that's who we're really trying to work with, >> okay? >> To help figure out what is causing them to be so tardy. And some of them are just slow walkers. Some of them want to walk with their friends and not take the fastest route to class. So >> as the data changes, our expectations also can change, right? The expectation for 17,000 tardies and where they can get better is different than 35,000 tardies and where they can get better. And so you see that incremental change. We often pick 3 to 5% gains. Um and most of our leaders are looking for larger gains than that. Um but also putting things in that people can feel the success from the measurement. I was curious about you mentioned lunch earlier. Um, and how many of those tardies are for students coming back from lunch? I mean, do the kids have enough time to eat? I know it's an issue in the high school. Is it an issue in the middle school? >> I will say um I know that it's been communicated to students on multiple occasions. If you're still eating, please stay. And we offer like the lunch staff will give them passes to go to the um go to their class. So there it would be an excused it wouldn't be counted as tardy. And so uh students do get through the lunch line pretty quickly. But sometimes there's kids coming down a little bit late because they were meeting with the teacher. Um in those instances where students are finding themselves with a tray full of food in the in front of them when the bell rings um the lunchroom staff know to can you stay eat please. we will excuse your um absences. Another cool thing that we're doing related to lunch um is this year we started a cafeteria cleanup rotation that's um stu student le and so there's a few students from each advisory who stay after um and help to co- clean the lunchroom with the cafeteria staff as well. And so there is a pass system for them as well. each student does it for one week out of the school year and so everybody gets a chance to do it. It's really helped to um build this the culture of like this is our community and we're taking care of it and um this the past system that we have been using really helps to prevent some of those um unnecessary tardies accidentally going into the into the um attendance data. So I would say for the most part that's not a large concern for us. Um, >> would you add anything? >> I just think it's a fifth hour like after lunch, full belly, slow walking. >> Sure. >> Okay. Well, that's cool that you do that as far as allowing kids to the time to eat. >> Maybe that's something the high school could adopt, too. >> I thought it was funny. She said, >> I started laughing because she said full belly, slow walking. I just started laughing. I thought it was funny. Director Carter, you had um asked some very datadriven questions and I just want to share an observation that I had last spring in in being in the hallway for a couple pass um passing periods and there's data, but also the staff that are in the hallways see the patterns and they know it's this kid that's late to this class and it's this you're late again, you're in the hallway again, I see you, you're supposed to be in class. those kind of reinforcements that are like extremely personal. So, um that's that's what I observed in there. So, it'sve I've seen the data in real life and it's it's impressive to see the way that they um call out the kids in a appropriate way. >> Thank you. >> And I think you see an example of the tangible actions that our administrators are taking. So, you can see them with their desks out in the hall. um whereas years ago it would not have been as such, but they are positioned in locations that help support our overall goals and help make sure staff are out supporting the kids, staff are getting kids engaged, the team members are getting kids engaged, and it's showing those results. So, it's fun to see. >> I I do have one other question for you. So, we talked a little bit about the um the students have that control between class periods but don't have that control for the first class. I'm curious about absences and how you're tracking absences in the way that you handle chronic absenteeism. Is that so far in the last month looking better than previous years? Do you have any maybe it's just anecdotal data at this point, but if you can share how that's looking in the middle school? Yeah, you know, our social workers do a lot of that data tracking with our attendance clerk, but when we have had our meetings, um, we're seeing more kids here. We're seeing more kids, uh, when their families are calling them in to be out also. And if we have a couple days in a row, our advisory teacher or our attendance clerk are also reaching out just to figure out what is going on. So, we haven't seen the the the numbers or the absenteeism that we've seen in the past. So, kids seem to want to be at the middle school. I'd also like to add that our social workers bless you >> our social workers are adept at identifying um what the underlying need is at the family level and they are both very well connected and understanding what resources exist in our community and really work to help provide whatever the resources might be or the support that might be preventing um students from getting to school. And so we don't have solutions to all of the issues, but I will say that they do a really good job behind the scenes helping to support and resource families who maybe need that extra support. I'm assuming this means that truency cases haven't gone down then too. Yeah. Okay. More questions from the board. If not, make sure Miss Paula silence is golden. Thank you. Appreciate you guys coming in. Nice to meet you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much, all of you. >> Next to commendations. >> Commendations. So, let's start. Uh, actually staying at the middle school, RPS would like to commend RMS teacher Katie Stevens for participating in the MDE assessment committee meetings this summer. That group provides input into overall quality statewide assessments. So, thanks to Katie for investing her time in the summer uh to advocate for our students at the statewide level. So, thank you Katie Stevens. Uh as we have been doing employee appreciation day, October is National Principles Month. So, we express our heartfelt gratitude to the amazing principles who leave our school every day. They inspire teachers, staff, and students to strive to do their best. And so, their dedication and commitment shape our educational experience. We thank you principles. October 2nd was custodial and facility staff appreciation day and so we appreciate our facility staff members who work tirelessly behind the scenes keeping our schools and grounds safe, clean, and welcoming. Their hard work helps create a beautiful environment for our students and staff where they can thrive. So, thank you for all that you do. And then today, October 6th, is National Coaches and National Instructional Coaches Day. RPS athletic coaches inspire, motivate, and guide our students on and off the field. Their commitment to teamwork, discipline, and confidence help shape not only great athletes, but also strong, resilient individuals. And our instructional coaches support and empower educators to grow and excel in their teaching practices. Their expertise and guidance play a vital role in enhancing student learning and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. We appreciate the positive impact of all of our coaches in the school community. So, thank you to all those team members. Thank you for that. The next item is approval of the consent agenda which is a colle which contains a collection of routine or fairly routine business items that we consent to pass in bulk without individual discussion. I'll pause for a moment to see if there are any questions or requests before we proceed hearing and seeing none. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by Director Spencer and a second by Director Banks Kepro. Any more discussion before we do my favorite vote hearing? None. We will go by roll call vote this time and every time. And this time we will start to my right which instead of director Paul will start with director Cole. I >> Dr. Paulus >> I >> director Kept >> I >> Dr. Liss >> I >> Dr. Spencer >> I >> the chair votes I and the consent agenda is approved. This brings us on to old business. Our first item is policy 75 purchasing administrative guidelines 715.1 and purchase guidelines. Second read. >> Yes. So we are having a second read of purchasing administrative guidelines. We brought that to the finance department with suggested changes and also have branding style guidelines to update with federal language around conflicts of interest. So as you go through uh you'll just see updates in regard to our mission statement um our branding on the first page. Um and then in regard to the guidelines u many of those are the same until you get to page three uh where there is some significant updates in regard to what is considered a conflict of interest. how one communicates that um and how do we make sure that there are not financial conflicts of interest in relation to Richfield public schools and the work that we do. And so that is the major updates that have occurred in that policy. Again, it's here for a second read to refamiliarize ourselves uh before we bring it to the board at the next meeting for recommended passage. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll just move right along to new business. Our first item is authorization for board member to be substitute to substitute slashbe employed on a casual slashtemporary basis slash isn't there. >> Correct. All right. So the maximum amount earned in one fiscal year by a board member who is also serving as an employee statute 123b.195 is $20,000. Uh we need a majority of the school board to approve the employment of Mr. Ken Liss uh who does serve as a substitute teacher and so this would authorize him to sub with us for the 2526 school year. Um and we are only able to do that at a meeting with all six members present which is what we have. And so with that I have for you a recommended resolution that we allow Mr. Liss um to serve as a substitute for Richfield Public Schools. >> I'll move the item as presented. I have a second. We have a motion by director Paulson and a second by director Spencer. Uh point of clarification since we're doing a roll call vote. Uh this is something that is abstained. >> Abstain. Do I? >> No, he can vote. >> You can vote. You can abstain. Um a majority must say yes. Uh you have a choice. >> Um >> yeah. >> See, >> you're not required. You're not required to vote. Yeah. Or or abstain. >> Uh or you you know, you're not required to abstain. It's not considered a conflict. Even though we just mentioned conflicts in the purchasing, it's pretty open. What's what's going on? Um yeah. So, it's up to you >> because >> as long as a majority of the of the six of us, >> not unanimous, >> as long as four others say yes, >> um it is >> or or a majority of those who vote last. >> Correct. >> If we had your list last, sure. If we had a trio of abstainers, >> it could it could carry two to one. >> There's so much excitement. >> It's a lot going on. An >> antilimactic thing about to happen. >> Any more discussion about this exciting topic? Hearing none, we're going to do a roll call vote. Surprise. And I will start this time with director Pauls. >> I >> director Spencer >> I. >> Director Banks Cup >> I. >> Director Cole >> I. >> Director Liss >> I. >> And the chair votes I. And we have approval for authorized board member to ser be employed on a casual temporary basis. brings us to the next item on the agenda which is resolution appointing election judges. >> All right. And so one of the roles of the board is to approve the list of election judges. So this is a resolution uh you can see list of individuals on exhibit A. They act as clerks of the election count the ballots and submit the results to us for canvas in the matter of our school board election. So we have those in front of you for recommended resolution passage. Any discussion, questions, or a motion? >> I move that we accept the resolution appointing election judges. I'll second. >> We have a motion by director list and a second by director Palace. And I feel like I need to apologize in advance for all the coughing and nose, right? Not and then not just you. There's multiple people here like myself. Uh for those who are listening, hopefully it doesn't pick up that much on the mic. >> Allergy season's almost over. >> Yeah. Hopefully it's allergies. >> Yes. >> Uh any more questions about this hearing? None. We'll bring it to a resolution to a vote and we'll start with director >> I. >> Director Maxo >> I. >> Director Paulus >> I. >> Dr. Cole >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I. >> The chair votes I. And we have an approved set of election judges. Next on the agenda is resolution for support of schoolbased healthc care center grant for 2025 to 2028. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And so we are asking the board to affirm their support for us to accept the Minnesota Department of Health health center grant supporting our Richfield Health Resource Center. Uh which would allow me to enter a grant agreement with the Minnesota Department of Health. So uh this has not been offered by the Department of Health before. We have actually been approved for the awarded amount of 221,000 covering September of this year uh through uh June 30th of 2028. And so this supports student access to healthcare and chemical health services, uh development of a student wellness council and the staffing costs associated. Uh previously we had a partnership with Reed Behavioral Health supporting chemical health, but that grant funding is no longer available. And so as we so often do, uh we aggressively pursued funds to support the needs of our students. And so this uh will support um much of those components for the next three years. So, we're just asking the board to support us receiving 221,000 in grant funds to this end. Thank you for that. Questions, comments, motion, silence. >> I'll move to the presented. >> I'll second. >> It's like deja vu. We have a motion by director Paul, a second by Director Spencer. Any more questions before we bring this to a roll call vote, which I will say it works out perfectly that Director Cole is out of town because we had to be roll calling anyways. >> There we go. The perfect time to load up with resolutions. >> Perfect timing. >> Glad I could help. >> Thank you. More questions, comments? Hearing none, we will bring it to a roll call vote. Since I'm looking at Director Banks, Cupjoy. Director Liss >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I. >> Director Cole >> I. >> Director Paulus. >> Hi. >> Everybody's got to pay attention because you don't know what I'm call. And we have a resolution to accept the stuff resolution of the support for oh gez for the schoolbased health center for grant center grant for 2025 2028. Next up is another resolution for support for a reimagined education grant for literacy professional development. >> Yes. And authorizing us to enter a grant agreement with the Minneapolis Foundation. So, one of the exciting things from the state of Minnesota is the read act and facilitated science of reading training. Uh, one of the negatives is the funding to come along with that and pay for all the training is not necessarily fully provided. the Wii uh director of elementary education um and our point person for teaching and learning, Rachel Jensen, has pursued grant funding for this for two straight years. Uh we are excited to share that $26,700 covering grant period from this year through June 30th to provide our teachers with the on-site 12 hours of letters facilitated training. Uh we did so that we can long-term support the ongoing growth of our staff um have on-site letters trainers. So, our team members have been trained. Uh, so we continue to support our cohort moving through in both phase one and phase two of the training. So, we are just looking for approval to take these grant funds and support the ongoing science of reading training in Richfield Public Schools. And thank you to the Minneapolis Foundation. >> Thank you. >> Questions, comments, or as usual, a motion? I move that we accept the grant as presented. >> I'll second that. >> We have a motion by Director Spencer and a second by Director Liss. Any more questions, comments, cheering. That was cheering. Guess I didn't annunciate it enough. Hearing none, bring it to a vote. Director Cole >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I. >> Director Liss >> I. >> Director Scro >> I. >> Director Paulus >> I. >> Chair votes I. And the resolution of support for reimagine education grant for literacy professional development. Feel like there's something missing there. Is approved. Brings us on to the resolution supporting a cooperative sponsorship agreement for Alpine Ski. >> Yes. And so we are bringing to the board when our teams are too small to feel the complete team. Uh we work in partnerships with similar schools. Um and so we are asking the board to support a cooperative sponsorship with Burnsville and Shakabe for girls alpine skiing and boys alpine skiing which will allow our teams to participate and compete. Uh Burnsville has agreed to be the host school for this agreement and so we are asking the board to support cooperative alpine skiing partnership. Do do we know? Um I imagine the answer is yes, but the the practice is at the same place as >> everything is same location I believe is all Buck Hill. Yep. Which is why Burnsville is supporting. >> All right. Thank you. >> And and each school is handling their own transportation because these schools are a long ways apart. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. This is just to have enough students to allow us to come >> to feel the team. Yep. >> Yep. And everybody's okay with the colors. I >> honestly haven't even looked at I think gear >> gold, red, and cardinal. >> I think Burnsville can actually walk to Buck. I don't think they need transportation. >> Long walk. >> I'll move the resolution as presented. >> Thank you, Dr. Paul. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Frank. Any more questions or comments? I'm guessing the answer is no. We'll just move it to a vote. >> Director Paul >> I. >> Director Better >> I. >> Director Cole >> I. >> Director Le >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I. >> Chair votes I. And we have an approved resolution supporting a cooperative sponsorship agreement for Alpine Ski. Brings us to policy 2011 legal status of school board. >> And no resolution no vote on this because this is just a first read to refamiliarize oursel. And so the legal status of the school board is just um defining and clarifying authority, duties and powers of the school board in carrying out its mission. Uh those are defined in state statute and outlined in section 4 powers and duties. Um and so that is laid out in front of you for a first read. Uh we can certainly take input and it will be updated for our second read when we bring it back at the next meeting. I have no comments since you're looking at me. >> But I was just looking in general, but thank you, Tim. >> Looks like that one's just going to go right on by and we'll go to policy 106, students and employees with communicable and infectious diseases. >> Absolutely. And again, this is a first read. So again to refamiliarize ourselves puts our measures in place to control exposure to communicable and infectious diseases in Richfield public schools while also making sure that we are effectively protecting the rights of those who might be affected. And so it talks about who we partner with. It talks about people's rei rights and responsibilities um and how we go through and oversee that. And so again first read and we'll come back to you at our next meeting with some updates um for our second read. Will this will be reviewed by safe and supportive schools? >> Um, this one is mostly legal. So, this will be um overseen by our nurses and our health team um and taking a look in in that category. >> More questions, comments? >> Then that brings us to donations. >> All right. And we have a long list. So, Centennial Elementary School received a donation of $962.60 for books from KPMG Minneapolis. Thank you, KPMG. Richfield High School Music Department received a donation of instruments valued at $300 from Jennifer Lewis of Richfield. Thank you, Jennifer Lewis. RHS Spanish Department received donations of $50 from Gan Woo of Irvine, California, and $50 from Vanessa Frank of Chaza, Minnesota. So, thank you to Gan and Vanessa. Richfield High School received a donation of $5 from Kaylee Armstrong of Inenver Grove Heights. Thank you, Kaylee. RPS Sunshine Lunch account received a donation of $75 from Susan Kenberg of Richfield. Thank you, Susan. RPS Indigenous Education Program received $50 from Andrea Zach of Oaklair, Wisconsin, $50 from Samantha Dross of Minnotonka, Minnesota, and $100 from Jenny Kappenman of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Thank you, Andrea, Samantha, and Jenny. Then RPS French Department received the following donations. $5 from Kathleen Straa of Richfield. $5 from Aradi Sa of Richfield. $5 from Listh Agiar Dominguez of Bloomington. $5 from Amino Daden of Minneapolis. $5 from Fatusana of Richfield. $5 from Jolene Winchuk of Minneapolis. $5 from Adi Abdi Wahed A of Minneapolis. $5 from Mariala Sanchez of Bloomington. $5 from Jessica Pon Jacobo of Richfield. $5 from Edith Zia of Richfield. $5 from Michael Peterson of Richfield. $8 from Addie Taylor of Richfield. $10 from Andrew Jerich of Richfield. $10 from Juliana Kumman of Richfield. $20 from Chris Gaseich of Richfield. $25 from Liz Lino of Minneapolis and anonymous donations totaling $35. Thank you for the generosity of the Richfield French Department. >> Great job getting through all those names. Would anybody like to make a motion? >> I move that we accept these donations with much gratitude. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion to accept these donations with much gratitude by director bankro and a second by director Paulus. And where do we start our roll call? Director. >> Hi. >> Director Cole. >> Hi. Director Banks Cup >> I. >> Director Pollus >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I >> and chair votes I and we accept these donations with much gratitude. >> Brings us to advanced planning and our first item is our legislative update. >> Couple of brief things. Um we will in the coming month probably waiting till mid November uh begin working on our legislative platform um for next year. As a reminder it is a policy year at the state not a budget year. Um so we'll begin taking a look and having that conversation as also our partner organizations do the same. Uh the other thing to be aware of is there is national conversation around immigration enforcement and immigration logistics and so we have with our administrative team and our school office teams reviewed our policies and practices in those areas. Uh we do have a communication teed up to go out in the next couple of weeks reminding our community of how we handle things. Um and so that should be going out in the coming in the coming weeks. Um so those are our brief updates. >> Questions, comments, information and questions from the board, >> suggested future agenda items, >> karaoke. [Laughter] Uh, we will take that under advisement. I like where heads at. I don't >> My time here is uh very limited. So, >> want to get on the schedule? >> Yeah. >> Just I'll have to figure out what local establishment does that. Would you accept standup comedy on your last >> Yeah. >> Would you accept doing standup comedy on your last >> on your last meeting? >> At my last meeting. >> I feel like public comment. I'll do it for three minutes. >> Getting punchy tonight. Uh future meeting dates, the next two board meetings, October 27th at 7 p.m. and November 10th at 7 p.m. Again, both meetings will be public comment. Um brings us to our final on agenda item for the agenda is to normally adjourn, but tonight we have a closed session to discuss labor negotiations. >> We love that speech. >> Can I before we jump to that, I I just want to point out for those that are watching at home that both of those future meeting nights are not standard >> nights. It's the Yes. >> fourth >> Monday and it's the second Monday. Right. >> Correct. We're dancing around the election and our requirement to >> to to accept the results of it. >> Correct. >> For all the people at home watching. >> Correct. Thank you for pointing that out. And then we don't have a second one in November. Right. >> Yeah. >> Right. So we kind of that was by design for the election. Uh so ready for a close session. Yeah. I I move that we enter into close session as allowed by Minnesota statute 13 DO3 for the purpose of labor negotiations strategy discussion. >> I'll second that. Everybody's excited about this. Motion by director Paulus, second by Director Liss. We'll go right to roll call vote. Director Spencer >> I. >> Director Liss >> I. >> Director Banks Cup >> nay. I mean I but I may not be there. >> Dr. Paulus >> I. >> Dr. Cole >> I. >> The chair votes I and we will now move into close session. After brief recess, the board will begin a close session in private room. We'll return to this meeting to officially adjourn upon completion of the closed session. But there will be no formal business other than to adjourn the meeting. For those following on the live stream, this will end the session. Thank you for attending. Good night friends.